Catch Me a Cowboy (Wattle Valley, #1)

by Jacquie Underdown

  When the laughter wound down, Wil managed to stand. He held his hands out for Emily. She eyed his gesture with distrust, knowing where it got her last time—flat on her arse in the mud. But she had no other choice—she wasn’t capable of standing on her own either, obviously.

  She gripped his hands and he helped her up. Holding tight to Wil, they both managed to heave their boots out of the mud and, one painstaking step at a time, made it to the fence. After climbing over and landing on the solid ground, Emily sighed with relief.

  Wil was watching her with that cheeky blue gaze. ‘The rain last night must have saturated the ground. I’m sorry …’ he broke off, laughing again.

  Emily pressed her filthy hands to her hips. ‘Next time, I’m herding those sheep.’

  Behind the nearby water tank was a tap they could use to wash up. The water was freezing, but it was better than stinky, sticky mud. Emily yanked her gumboots off and washed away all the gunk.

  Wil ran his hand under the slow stream of water then rubbed his finger along her jaw. Despite the chill of the water, hot tingles fanned across her flesh. ‘You’ve got a bit of mud there.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said.

  Holding his hands under the flow from the tap, he allowed water to pool in his palms, then splashed it on her cheek. ‘And a bit more there,’ he said with a chuckle.

  She gasped as the shock of cold struck her. Emily narrowed her eyes at him, ignoring his teasing grin, and quickly retaliated, splashing him in the face. ‘You’ve got a bit of mud there,’ she said, already dissolving into laughter.

  Wil cupped his hands under the tap again, but she lurched away, squealing, and ran from him, only to hit a spot of slippery grass and fell onto her backside with a thud.

  Emily could not believe her luck. It appeared she was going to become intimately acquainted with dirt, grass and mud, the things she was apprehensive of coming face-to-face with. She lowered her head into her hands and laughed and laughed and laughed.

  Wil joined her, sitting beside her on the wet grass. He laid a hand on her shoulder and tried his hardest to apologise, but every time he attempted to speak, he burst into laughter again.

  When she lifted her head from her knees and looked at him, tears were rolling down her cheeks and she was alternating between laughter and crying.

  ‘Are … are you okay?’ he asked, his expression sobering.

  She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and sniffled. ‘I’m fine. I think.’

  ‘You’re crying?’

  She nodded. ‘But they’re happy tears.’ At least, she thought they were. She hadn’t had this reaction before, but she wasn’t sad, so the only explanation was that she was literally crying happy tears. ‘I think my stress is leaving me.’

  ‘You were stressed?’ True concern filled his voice.

  ‘I think I was. I didn’t know … I mean I did, but I didn’t believe it.’ She looked into his blue eyes, smiled then frowned. ‘I’ve been so damn serious … I’d forgotten …’ she trailed off. Emily knew that as she donned her realtor’s face, always professional, and went about working every day, she hid the less serious side of herself until she forgot it had ever existed. Until now.

  Wil rested his hand on her thigh and squeezed her knee. His voice was low and gentle. ‘Next date, I’ll organise something relaxing for us.’

  She shook her head and grinned bashfully. ‘You don’t have to do that. Today was perfect. Maybe something where I don’t have to walk, though. Seems I’m having trouble doing that.’

  Wil laughed and lifted to his feet. He held his hands out to her and helped Emily from the grass.

  She peered down at her damp, filthy clothes. ‘I’m sorry, I’m going to dirty your ute.’

  He shook his head. ‘Don’t worry. It’s seen worse things than a little mud.’

  Emily was sent by the director to complete her daily one-on-one camera time before she had a chance to shower. But, despite sitting for an hour longer in her filthy jeans, shirt, and gumboots, she had fun recounting the day’s events. She had adored the day spent with Wil. She could take or leave the other girls who tagged along—leave, preferably.

  Afterwards, at the contestants’ quarters, while the next group of girls left for their date with Wil, Emily showered and changed, then went to her bedroom. From her hiding spot in her luggage, she retrieved her phone and relaxed onto her bed. She wanted a work fix, an hour or so catching up on the latest happenings in the Melbourne real estate market while she had been away. The last thing she needed was to go back to her usual life and be completely out of the loop where property was concerned.

  But Emily only managed five minutes scrolling through current listings before her eyes were drooping. It wasn’t like her to experience tiredness during the day, let alone sleep … ever, but her muscles were loosening and her body melting into the mattress. Closing her heavy lids, she gave herself permission to take advantage of this unusual state.

  She woke sometime later to the sound of women talking. The scent of cooking was drifting through the air. Emily rubbed her eyes, rolled out of bed and made her way to the kitchen. She reached for the door to push it open, when her name was whispered in a snarky tone.

  Her stomach squirmed. Who was in there and what were they saying about her? She hovered outside the door, pressed her ear closer, and listened.

  ‘I’m going to say something.’ It was Becky’s voice. ‘Emily was totally hogging Wil. It’s not fair. How are we supposed to get to know him if she’s always there? And the way she stormed away when I put my arm around him. As though I’m not allowed to do that, yet she is. I’m sick of her. She’s been trouble from day one.’

  Anger boiled through Emily’s veins. I’m trouble? She was the last thing from trouble. It seemed all she had to do was breathe and she put these girls offside. And she wasn’t purposefully hogging Wil. It just happened that she fell over. Twice. But he was noticeably as attentive to Becky and Daniella, wasn’t he?

  Daniella spoke then, but Emily wasn’t going to continue allowing them to bitch about her behind her back, so she shoved through the door. And of course, the cameras were there to greet her, capturing every word these girls had said about her.

  She forced a smile onto her face as though she hadn’t heard what they had been saying. ‘Hi,’ she said, but her voice didn’t sound as cheery as she intended.

  Becca grinned wide. It was so fake, it made Emily want to vomit. ‘Oh, hi, Emily. Nice to see you’ve cleaned up.’

  Daniella, who was tearing lettuce leaves into a bowl, said, ‘We were saying what a great time we had today with Wil.’

  Emily nodded. ‘I had a lot of fun.’

  ‘Yes. You did,’ said Becky. ‘I couldn’t help but think that you spent more time with Wil than we did, though.’ Her tone was still forcibly light.

  ‘I can’t control that.’

  Daniella stopped what she was doing and glared at Emily. ‘We think differently. It’s only fair that you let us have time with him too. We’re all here to get to know him, not cheat each other.’

  Emily’s chest tightened. She fisted her hands at her side. Were they seriously saying she was cheating? This was ridiculous, more so than she could have ever imagined. She levelled her gaze on both of them. She was sick and tired of being called old, and now a cheat. Enough was enough. ‘This is a competition. Or have you forgotten that?’

  As Emily marched from the room, the door swinging closed behind her, Becky’s mumbled words followed her. ‘You’ve just reminded us. Loud and clear.’

  Emily stayed in her bedroom for the rest of the evening, eating the couple of fruit and nut bars she had stashed in her purse from god knows how long ago. She didn’t want to stir anything else up, not while the cameras were hovering and the tension was high. The last thing she needed was to prolong or escalate this schoolyard-like pettiness. She was an adult. And her current situation, no matter how utterly abnormal and incomprehensible, was not going to make her forget th
at.

  Later that evening, Emily snuck out with her phone to the tree. The cloak of night was all around her, the silence that went hand in hand with darkness pressed upon her senses. This was fast becoming her favourite time of day on the farm—there was a peacefulness that accompanied this hour that transcended all other moments. Despite the blanketing black that curbed her vision, the sky above, illumed with winking stars and the bright shifting moon, opened her up to a world she had not experienced before.

  She sighed, leant back against the smooth trunk of the tree, and held the mobile up to her ear. ‘There’s definite chemistry.’

  ‘What?’ asked Xanthi.

  ‘He takes my breath away. Makes my heart flutter. He’s kind and funny and I want to jump his bones every time I look at him.’ Lowering her voice she whispered, ‘I’m in trouble, aren’t I?’

  ‘Depends on how you look at it. My opinion is you’re moving in the right direction.’

  Emily frowned. ‘Until he eliminates me.’

  ‘Why, is there a possibility he will?’

  ‘There always is.’

  ‘But, he feels that chemistry too, doesn’t he?’

  Emily thought about Wil taking every opportunity to touch her—shoulder, thigh, hand—and the heated look in his eyes. ‘Yeah,’ she whispered, throat tight with tension. ‘I’ve felt it between us.’

  ‘Then you’re not getting eliminated.’

  ‘But what if I’m wrong? Oh God, I’m in for a whole world of hurt.’

  Xanthi’s tone was no-nonsense when she said, ‘You’re a big girl. You’ll pick yourself up and move one. You’ve done it before, you can do it again.’

  She was right. Emily had experienced the end of three major relationships in her history that hurt her like nothing else when they ended. But, she put on her big-girl stilettos and got on with life until that pain didn’t hurt quite so much anymore. And she was in love with those men; she wasn’t in love with Wil.

  At the end of the day, this was a game show. She didn’t have to be serious, or fall in love; there was room to be frivolous and have fun. Today’s date showed that.

  ‘You’re right. I should just stop being a scaredy cat and dive in. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’ Her conscience chimed in then and said, ‘don’t get ahead of yourself’, but she ignored it for the first time in her life.

  ‘Yes,’ screeched Xanthi. ‘Dive in. You know how to swim.’

  Chapter 17

  By the time Wil had finished with the group dates scheduled for that day, did his interviews back at the farmhouse with the director and a camera, then rushed out to complete the few jobs he didn’t get to during the day, he was spent. He was grateful his mother invited him over for dinner.

  But, because he loved this time of the evening, when the setting sun glowed in the distance painting the landscape in fluorescent colour, he walked to his parent’s property. It had nothing to do with the hope he held of running into Emily again on the way home.

  Pushing through the front door of his parent’s house, the home he lived out his childhood in, he yelled, ‘Hi! Anyone home?’ He knew they’d be in the kitchen, but it’s what he did.

  ‘In here,’ came his dad’s voice.

  Wil strode to the kitchen. His mother was at the stove top, finishing the dinner prep while his father was seated at the table. The kitchen was warm and the aromas of roast chicken set his stomach rumbling. He went to his mum and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Hi, Mum.’

  ‘Hi, darling.’

  ‘Hi, Dad. You need a hand with anything?’

  Mum nodded. ‘If you could set the table please.’

  Wil went about placing plates, knives, and forks on the kitchen table.

  ‘So how’s it all going over there?’ asked Dad.

  Wil, grinning, shook his head. ‘They’re a handful, let me tell you. I’ve never met women like them. Incredibly beautiful and all so different from one another.’

  ‘But do any strike your fancy?’ asked Mum impatiently, as though Wil should have read between the lines of Dad’s question and interpreted the guts of what he was really asking.

  Wil couldn’t hold back his wide smile.

  Mum giggled. ‘Well, that looks promising. Tell me, what’s her name?’

  Wil placed the last set of cutlery on the table, went to the fridge and grabbed out a beer for himself and Dad. He uncapped them and handed a bottle to his dad before taking a seat.

  ‘Her name is Emily. She’s a real estate agent, living in Melbourne. The moment I saw her, I just felt … something.’

  Dad nodded. ‘Does she like you, though, son?’

  Wil frowned, then shrugged. ‘I’m not sure exactly. I get the vibe that she does and then I feel like she’s holding back. Like she’s scared.’

  ‘She might be. This would be daunting for any young lady to experience. And besides, she probably doesn’t know you enough yet.’

  Wil took a swallow of his beer. ‘Yeah. I understand that well enough.’ He grinned. ‘You should see her, though, she’s the most beautiful woman to ever grace this farm.’

  Dad stood then and shuffled closer to his wife. He kissed her on the cheek. ‘I may have to disagree with you on that one, son.’

  Mum giggled and lowered her head bashfully, still affected by his compliments even after thirty-five years of marriage. It warmed Wil’s heart to see it and he smiled. He could still remember when he was a little boy, his mother, to him, was the most beautiful woman too.

  ‘But it’s not all about appearances. You know that,’ said Mum.

  He swallowed another mouthful of beer. ‘I know that. She’s also really focused, successful, smart and kind.’ He laughed, recalling her falling over in the mud. ‘Has trouble staying on her feet.’ He recounted the story of their date to his parents and they were all in stitches by the end of it.

  ‘I like the sound of her,’ said Dad.

  ‘Me too,’ said Mum.

  Wil liked the sound of her too. And the look. And what he had managed to touch so far.

  After dinner of roast chicken and vegetables, Wil helped his mother with the dishes then had another beer with his dad in the living room. A football game was on, but Wil was too distracted to concentrate.

  ‘I saw Lindsey Walsh yesterday afternoon,’ Dad said. Billi’s mother.

  Wil’s muscles went rigid at the sound of her name. ‘And?’

  ‘Looks like Billi’s come home to stay. Seems her husband strayed.’

  ‘But she’s pregnant.’

  Dad shrugged. ‘These things happen.’

  Wil rubbed the back of his neck and took a long pull on his beer. Despite all that Billi had done to him and his family, he felt a small twang of sympathy for her. It couldn’t be an easy situation.

  ‘Seems they’ve started advertising this show of yours already. Lindsey wanted to know all about it. A million bloody questions.’

  Wil shook his head. ‘I don’t know why you even bother talking to her.’

  ‘She’s not responsible for her daughter’s actions. She disapproved as much as we did. They didn’t speak for a year after all that fuss. But Billi is finally realising her mistakes.’

  Wil arched a brow. ‘How so?’

  ‘Lindsey mentioned something of the kind. Seems she’s wishing she never left.’

  Wil drank the remainder of his beer and stood. ‘Well, too late for regrets.’

  Dad nodded. ‘My exact words.’

  Wil threw his bottle in the recycling, said goodbye to his parents and started on his way back home. He wandered closer to the tree where he met Emily the night before, hoping he’d see the sexy silhouette of her body standing under the moonlight.

  But she wasn’t there.

  His body grew leaden with disappointment as he kept on back to his farmhouse to spend the night dreaming about what if.

  Chapter 18

  A cocktail party was held the following evening in the barn. Not the same barn where Emily had helped load hay bales
and had stored feed and tractors and molasses. As she stepped inside this two door barn and noted the roaring fireplace, the long bar, open kitchen, and heaters situated throughout, she realised this barn had one sole purpose—entertaining.

  The space was stunningly decorated with cow-hide lounges, rustic timber tables, and fairy lights strung around the open beam rafters. It epitomised luxurious country living.

  Emily wore a delicate white dress. The skirt sat above her knee while the back flowed down to her ankles. The flimsy material cinched in at her waist, was sleeveless, and the collar slung low so her cleavage was on display. And complementing the dress were her cowboy boots. She curled her hair into long waves and left it to hang loosely around her shoulders and down her back.

  A bartender mixed Emily a fruity cocktail and she sat with the other eight women, who were looking gorgeous in their formal dresses and stilettos. She was the only one in cowboy boots, but she didn’t care. These babies had lassoed her heart and, as a bonus, they looked fantastic with this dress.

  Emily attempted small talk with the girls, but after what she heard Becky and Daniella talking about yesterday afternoon, each word and smile was rigid and mechanical. The other girls were equally stand-offish, which made Emily think they’d been gossiping among themselves. Emily sipped on her cocktail. This is a game that will soon come to an end. Just pretend to be nice and before you know it, it will be over and you’ll be back in Melbourne living your old life.

  Three of the girls had gone on their farm date with Wil that morning and were chatting about the details. By the sounds of it, they had done much of the same things Emily, Becky and Daniella did yesterday.

  ‘Thankfully, Wil didn’t make us go into the pig sty area. Those pigs are horrible creatures,’ said Angela.

  ‘You can thank Emily for that,’ said Daniella. ‘She fell over, “supposedly” by accident.’ Yes, she used her fingers to air quote and her tone was completely sarcastic.

  Emily narrowed her eyes at her.

  ‘You fell over in there?’ asked Angela, her lips twisting in disgust.

  Emily nodded. ‘Yes. And it was by accident.’